Barreirinhas

Barrierinhas is a small town in the state of Marañao in North East Brazil, I have friends there and have been there a couple of times

Barreirinhas Ma. Brazil

Its is about 25 miles from the coast on a very winding river the Rio Preguçias, it is just over 3 degrees south of the equator, so it’s pretty hot.

Street scene

Some of the roads are paved, but a lot of them are like this

The Roundabout

This is the roundabout where the road from the state capital comes in, every night sand blows onto the road from the sand dune on the right, and every morning about 6 am a large JCB comes along and pushes it back.

The state capital São Luís is a 4 hour drive away, that was the nearest airport last time I was there, though the local one may be open now.

Papaya

Growing in a friend’s back yard.

Cashew

Oooh, look what I picked up in the garden. The Cashew fruit has an interesting taste but does not keep so it is never seen here in Europe, the nut cannot be just broken out of the shell, heat is required.

Burning Cashew

After it has been burnt you smash it out, and of course it is ready roasted, and utterly delicious, I presume that for commercial quantities an oven with heated rollers would be used. Of course it is about the same price there as it is here, but the nuts are a lot bigger than the ones we get.

Acai

Another “wonderfood”, the berries are very hard and would need mechanical extraction in my opinion.

Mango

Now that is a very good reason to go there in november when mangoes are in season, along with a lot of other lovely fruits which we never see here.